Obama: Work hard for a better future

President Barack Obama, acknowledging his own struggles growing up and a sometimes “casual” approach to his education, on Tuesday urged students across the country to work hard in school and dream big, because “nobody gets to write your destiny but you.”

In his second annual back-to-school address, delivered at Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia, Obama told students to apply themselves in the classroom for their own sake as well as to give the nation a leg up in an age of intense global competition. Though they and their families may be anxious because of the shaky economy, the president said, a quality education is the best way to a better future.

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“In other words, the farther you go in school, the farther you’ll go in life,” he said. “So you have an obligation to yourselves, and America has an obligation to you to make sure you’re getting the best education possible.”

Obama spoke at the Masterman School, a public school for grades 5-12 with an enrollment of 1,500.

While urging students to do their best and keep their futures in mind, Obama said he understands that being a teenager “isn’t easy,” particularly when questions of self-identity collide with bullying and school violence. At that age, the president said, “I was wrestling with all sorts of questions about who I was. I had a white mother and a black father, and my father wasn’t around; he had left when I was 2. And so there were all kinds of issues that I was dealing with. Some of you may be working through your own questions right now and coming to terms with what makes you different.”

But students — and adults — must celebrate diversity and be proud of their differences, Obama said. “It’s the things that make us different that make us who we are.”